Defense rests in Kilpatrick trial

DETROIT, Feb. 6 (UPI) -- Lawyers for former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick and his co-defendants rested their case Wednesday after four days of defense testimony.

Neither Kilpatrick nor the other defendants testified, The Detroit News reported. Most of the trial, which began in September, was taken up by 80 prosecution witnesses, many of them cross-examined at length by the defense.

"I am choosing not to," Kilpatrick replied when U.S. District Judge Nancy Edmunds asked him about testifying.

Kilpatrick, his father, Bernard, and Bobby Ferguson, an old friend of the mayor who became a city contractor, are charged with bribery, kickbacks and corruption. Victor Mercado, the former head of the city water department, pleaded guilty in November to conspiring with Kilpatrick.

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